SideKicks

Issue 6: Beyond the Isle of Mad Scientists

Zero Crisis Begins!

25

OCT/10

Highlights:Waverider talks to each of them as they float through the Sea of Time. Explaining that a mad man is attempting to take over all time and reality. He sends them into the timestream to find four objects of particular value.

When the team regains consciousness, they find themselves in a storage area of sorts. Metal crates and other storage materials litter the area.

The Kinetic Kid spies a door on the far side of the room and heads toward it. He finds it locked and needs both a keycard and passkey. Brain Child notices a ventilation grate directly above the door and decides to see if they can use that. She climbs up, unscrews the grid, and climbs through.

Inside, she begins to hear a electronic whirring as three horizontal laser beams coming directly at her. She throws herself from the shaft and back out onto the floor.

Finding that won’t work, she attempts to hack the locking systems on the door. She fails spectacularly, setting off the alarm.

The team quickly hides among the boxes as a number of guards come to check the area. Determining that it was a false alarm, the guards leave after a sweep of the area.

The Zeros come out of hiding and contemplate what to do next. The Kinetic Kid offers to smash the door, but Brain Child feels that will set the whole place off. Hybrid says he’ll brave the ventilation systems to find control room to find some place to open the door or shut off the laser systems for the ventilation systems.

Hybrid assumes were-mouse form and begins to skitter nimbly through the ventilation while avoiding the lasers. His nose begins to smell the scent of coffee and he heads in that direction.

He finds another grate and, peering through it, finds a lone research working over his desktop.

Shifting to were-spider form and dropping silently through the grate, he catches the scientist by surprise and knocks him unconscious. A quick search of the scientist’s labcoat and office, he finds a keycard and the passkey. He silently creeps back to the storage room and unlocks the door. The team retreats back to the office to plan their next strategy.

As they wonder about the item that they are supposed to find, an image of it immediately appears in their mind. Brain Child hacks into the desktop to search for any indication that the item is stored in this place.

Hybrid uses his smartphone to determine when and where they were. Oolong Island, 8 months into the future from the moment they left Metropoboken.

Brain Child manages to confirm that information as well as find some limited information about Oolong Island as the item they are searching for. She determines they need to get to the main computer room deep within the facility. Based on the plans she found, she determines they are on the third floor.

The group plans to disguise The Kinetic Kid and Brain Child as scientists and Hybrid as their test subject. Which ends up working surprisingly well. They travel undetected despite the number of labs and offices on that floor and find the elevator they need to descend toward the main computer room. However, they don’t have access to that floor. The keycard they stole from the unconscious scientist only allows access up to the 3rd floor. The one they are currently on.

They quickly hatch a plan, where Hybrid ‘escapes’ and causes a distraction that takes the guards away from the guard station on that floor. Once that happens, The Kinetic Kid will sneak into the guard station, insert his name into the records as a resident physicist and print himself and Brain Child security cards for the floor they want.

As the plan begins, things begin going wrong almost immediately. While Hybrid does attract the guards attention, but they begin to shoot him with stun blasts from their energy rifles. Brain Child chases after to explain not to hurt her ‘precious experiment’. They look at her and ask why she was on this floor, when her office is much lower. This confuses her for a moment, but she makes up some excuse about taking her little experiment for a walk. The bluff works with Hybrid playing the role of the scared pet.

Meanwhile, The Kinetic Kid finds the guards station still manned by two guards. He is noticed and quickly makes up some story about losing his id and security card. When questioned further, he manages to bluff his way into the station though the guards grow increasingly suspicious. Under the gun, The Kinetic Kid stealthy fires a pencil, with his kinetic powers, into the security camera of the office and takes out the guards quickly and quietly.

Brain Child quickly returns with Hybrid and is let in to the guard station by The Kinetic Kid. Brain Child begins to work on the security system as The Kinetic Kid keeps watch. Hybrid dons the uniform the guards were wearing as his new disguise.

Brain Child gets into the system only to find that the security card machine in this office can only make cards for floors up to 12, which is one floor above the one they need. She does discover that each floor houses scientists of varying degrees, the notoriety increasing with each floor with the 13th floor being the most prestigious and maddest.

The Kinetic Kids warns her about time, and she begins to search for a scientist of similar age and appearance on the 12th floor. She finally does, though she does note an entry for a Victoria Langley listed among the scientists on that floor. She overrides the scientists picture and retina scan data and prints out a LVL12 Security Clearance keycard. They quickly make haste to the elevator and the 12th floor.